Swap Shops

Swap Shops

Swap Shops are for passing on items which are clean, safe and genuinely reusable, once you have finished with them. They were started in 2003 and have been running regularly ever since; here is a recent article about Swap Shops from the Wallingford Herald! They are held four times per year at Centre 70 in Wallingford. Everyone is welcome to bring things for reuse, or to take things away; you need not bring anything before you can take anything, for free. No money changes hands, although donations are always welcome.

Items too large to bring along can be advertised on a board.

For our next Swap Shop at the Centre 70 see the box on the right.

At the same events we also collect items that can be recycled but cannot be put in your green bin. However, we do not collect as many as we used to as many can now be recycled elsewhere; see publicity prior to each event for more detail.

Centre 70 swaphop

PAT testing

We usually have a selection of displays or activities relevant to reduction, reuse and recycling, or to environmental issues more generally — for example advice about composting or solar panels.

The items that are taken away are weighed so we know how much has been re-used; the total amount since the events started is now over 15 tonnes. Any items left are passed on to local charity shops or recycled.

What can I bring?

Things to Swap

These must be reusable (someone else could use them), clean and non-hazardous. If you have something large,such as furniture or greenhouses etc., you can bring a photo/description and contact details instead. Items that you bring can be taken away by anyone attending without charge. These can include

New and used tools

Small portable mains electric items, if they are in working order and have a CE mark and a lead

What NOT to bring

Rubbish – things that can’t be recycled and are not usable by anyone else

Electric items that are large, do not work, or do not have a CE mark

Ordinary incandescent light bulbs

Clothes – these should be taken to charity shops or clothes banks

Paint

Ink cartridges — collection point in Higgs stationers, Castle Street

Spectacles — take to Robert Stanley opticians

Batteries — shops selling significant quantities of batteries are now obliged to take them back

We no long take VCR and cassette tapes

When and where are they held?

Swap Shops are held about every three months in Centre 70 in Wallingford. Dates for 2018 are

14th April 2018
30th June 2018
29th September 2018

They run from 9.45 to 11.30 a.m., but items for swapping should be brought before 10.30 so there is a chance for people to find them and take them away. (You can bring items to the door from 9.15 onwards).

Other groups in Oxfordshire also hold Swap Shops. See our Community Action Group events

Alternatives

Don’t save things up to bring to Swap Shops — they are just one way of getting items to a good home and having a good look. On the Internet, you can also use Wallingford Given Free to pass on and obtain items, and charity shops will be glad of anything that they can sell. You can sell your items via Wallingford Piper Sales facebook page, or on Gumtree or eBay. For more information on why, how, and what to recycle from recycling-guide.org.uk click here

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the CAG project for their help and support, and to all our helpers.